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Treaties: Dispute Resolution

Question for Department for Business and Trade

UIN HL742, tabled on 4 September 2024

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to assess whether current investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms within treaties to which the UK is a signatory have produced outcomes that are in the UK’s national interest.

Answered on

12 September 2024

The UK is party to over 80 Bilateral Investment Treaties and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which contain investment protection and Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions.

The UK is a significant capital exporter and investment protection provisions backed by ISDS provide UK investors with legal protection against arbitrary, discriminatory or unfair treatment and expropriation without compensation. ISDS provides a framework to resolve disputes with host governments through independent arbitration.